Leitmotif
by YoshiStack
Summary: Ulrich never really cared about the piano. The only reason he could play it was because his father forced him to take lessons. But maybe it was more useful to him than he previously thought.


**There should be more fics focusing on Ulrich and Aelita's friendship, and that is a fact goddamnit.**

 **So have one based one headcanon of mine.**

* * *

Leitmotif

It was a breezy afternoon across the Kadic campus. Ulrich shoved his hands into his pockets as he walked along the worn dirt path. The way to his destination was one he knew pretty well, enough that he hardly had to pay attention to which way he was going. Instead, he decided to keep his eyes focused on the trees around him and the thoughts occupying his mind. His thoughts related not of the unkept road ahead of him or the textbook that was nestled in between his arm and side, but rather on why he was walking this way anyway.

To put it simply: he needed help.

He had a chemistry test coming up in less than a week. The test didn't count for any more than the usual amount on their overall average, but Ulrich saw it as an oppurtunity. He was rocking a high C in Ms. Hertz's class at the moment (a sight which nearly made the teacher faint out of astonishment), only a few points on the edge of pulling of a B. If he could pass the test, it could be what he needs to launch his grade over the edge.

The problem was that it was, well, chemistry. While he wasn't quite as lost in the class as he was physics, he was still far from a model student. He needed a little help from someone.

Jeremy, was of course, his obvious first choice. But Ulrich was quick to remember why he only went to Jeremy on concepts he only needed a refresher on.

 _"To convert from molecules to grams, you need to first convert the number of molecules of the substance by dividing by Avogadro's number to find- why are you giving me that look?"_

The brunette shook his head. Even thinking about it now made his head spin.

No, smart as Jeremy was, it was Aelita who he needed. She was able to dumb things down for him in laymans terms when needed, and she always made sure he had at least a decent grasp on the subject before moving on.

The only problem was the fact that she wasn't currently on campus. And his phone was dead, so calling her was out of the question.

Ulrich looked up when the shadow of the Hermitage began to loom over him. He shivered a bit, though quickly stopped himself and settled on rubbing his arms instead. No matter how much time had passed since his first encounter with the house, or how many times he'd been to it since, he could never fully shake the uneasy feeling the decrepit home gave him. He held the strap to his bag tightly for a moment.

He pushed the memories aside and continued toward the door. Upon opening it, he was greeted with the usual dust blowing up and a loud creaking from the doors hinges. He looked around at the tattered walls blankly.

" _As rundown looking as always,_ " he couldn't help but think. He shook his head. He pushed his way past the door, letting it slam shut behind him. He looked around at the entrance, his eyes lingering on the stairs for a moment. Thinking back, he seemed to recall Aelita always reflecting in what was once her room. He moved towards them.

He stopped when he noticed a flash of pink to the right out of the corner of his eye. He turned toward the living room entrance instead.

Aelita let out a startled squeak at his footsteps. Her head whipped around, and for a split second she wore a fearful expression. As soon as she realized that it was only Ulrich, she let out a relieved breath and let her hands fall back into her lap.

"Oh, hello, Ulrich," she greeted quietly. Ulrich nodded toward her. A silence hung in the air, which Ulrich found he was strangely comfortable with. Aelita looked away from him, and instead stared down toward her boots with a pensive expression

Recovering her human memories had been rough on the pinkette in ways Ulrich was sure he'd never fully understand. Though she tried her best not to show it, even Ulrich could tell that recovering the memories had made an impact on her personally. She had moments where she would zone out or seem distracted, and while some teachers wrote it off as her simply day dreaming, he had a sneaking suspicion it was something else entirely.

He decided this might be one of those moments. The silence between them remained for several minutes.

He was slightly surprised when Aelita suddenly broke said silence. "So..."

"Huh?" he jumped. "Oh, uh, yeah." Ulrich stuttered. He was beginning to regret doing this. He should've just waited until she was back. "I uh, might need your help with something?"

"Oh... ok. Give me a few minutes," she said with a nod. She stood up, sending dust everywhere again, something she let out a slight huff at. Ulrich's lips twitched.

"I'm not sure what you expected," he said. She smirked at that as she dusted herself off.

Ulrich let his eyes wander around the room. He'd only ever been in here a few times, and it had usually been under bad circumstances, so seeing the actual interior of the Hermitage wasn't something he'd done very often. He found himself looking at a piano in the corner that was encased in an abnormally thick layer of dust.

"Did your father play?" he asked suddenly, still looking at it.

"Hm? Oh, yeah," she smiled wistfully. "They're some of the best memories I have with him before well..."

Ulrich looked back at her when she grew quiet. She went back to getting the last bits of dust off of her clothes, the frown returning on her face.

The piano didn't look too bad, all things considered. A few missing black keys was the greatest extent of damage he could find. Now he was curious. He set his bag down beside him and tapped on the key closest to him.

A slightly out of tune note echoed throughout the room. He raised his eyebrows and looked at his hand. Some dust now clung to his finger. He wasn't expecting it to still be working after all these years. He played a few more notes, which all sounded similarly wrong.

Aelita, who had been about to turn out of the room, froze in her tracks. She hadn't heard a piano played in years, especially not that one. The memories came flooding back to her.

" _It's like math. Let me show you..._ " _her father had told her. And then she watched on in awe as his fingers flew across the keys with ease. The seemingly effortless way he was able to play so perfectly was magical to her. Her father, after noticing her awed expression, stopped and looked down at her with a large and warm smile. "See? It's simple,"_

 _She shook her head. "No way, you're too good!"_

 _"Well, I've had more time to practice than you have!" He laughed. "But I could always teach you. Would you like that?"_

 _She nodded feverishly. "Of course!" How could she not want to learn? Any opportunity to learn something her father knew was one she would likely always be willing to take._

 _His smile grew even brighter. "Great! We'll start soon." She grinned and nodded, watching as her father went back to play the song again. She was positively giddy with anticipation for when exactly 'soon' would be._

 _Only 'soon' never came._

Aelita blinked as the memory faded. Her face was wet with fresh tears she hadn't been aware had been there. She reached up and rubbed them away. This was not the time to be crying over what could have beens. But the memory felt so raw, she could even still hear the familiar tune in her ears.  
She stopped.

" _Wait..."_ She whirled around. A hand flew to her mouth in surprise.

Ulrich was playing the same song. Granted, it was slightly slower and more out of tune than she remembered it, but there was no doubt about it: he was playing the very song her father always played for her.

The music abruptly stopped, and Aelita suddenly was aware of the fact that she was staring at Ulrich. The brunette in question was bright red and looked away as he tried to pry the dust from his fingers.

"I uh... sorry," he muttered. He probably should've at least asked her before doing that, he realized.

She wasn't angry however, and shook her head. "No, it's fine. Just... I didn't know you knew how to play,"

Ulrich shrugged. "My dad made me take lessons when I was younger." He was hardly surprised that she didn't know. The only reason the others knew was because of the short lived band Odd had assembled. Beyond that, he'd hardly touched the keyboard he had in his closet since he'd started at Kadic.

"Sounds nice..." Aelita muttered absently.

"What was that?"

She flinched. "I just..." she let out a deep sigh. She lifted her head and met Ulrich's expectant gaze. "My father was supposed to teach me how to play, is all. He promised he'd do it... but then my mother and everything else happened and..." She blinked back some tears.

If Ulrich had noticed, he was kind enough not to show it. He instead looked at the piano again. "He was, huh..." He murmured. He tapped his fingers across the top of piano in thought.

"What was it you said you needed help with?" Aelita asked, not quite looking at him. Ulrich made no sound, only nodded to himself. She tilted her head slightly when Ulrich grabbed a nearby stool and began wiping dust off of it. "What are you doing?"

He said nothing, only motioned for her to come over to him and began to rummage around through his bag. Finally, he found what he was looking for: a thin book with some post it notes poking out of it's pages. He looked back at her again when he noticed she hadn't budged.

"What?"

"What are you doing?" she asked again.

"What does it look like?" He motioned toward the piano and revealed what the book he was holding was. It was a piano book that he always had on him for some reason; mostly it was just because he never remembered to take it out after he used it in music class months ago.

Aelita's eyes went wide. "Wait, what?"

"You said you wanted to learn, right? I know I'm not your dad but..." he trailed off. " _But I hate seeing you look so sad about it,_ "

"You... you would do that? For me?" she said, almost in a whisper.

He shrugged and looked away from her again. "I mean, why not? It's not that hard. And if you're serious about the whole DJing thing, I bet it'd be useful to know," he quickly added. Aelita smiled, then moved to take a seat next to him on the stool. "I should warn you, I'm not a very good teacher,"

"You can't be any worse than Odd would be," she pointed out with a grin.

"I guess there's that," he laughed. He opened the first page of his music book and looked towards Aelita, her expression curious. "Anyways, let's see how much I remember..."

It wasn't until later that night before bed that he realized he'd completely forgotten to ask her about studying for the chemistry test.

But upon the remembrance of Aelita's joy filled expression upon being able to play a very particular song, she just rolled over with a smile.

* * *

 **Didn't turn out EXACTLY as I'd hoped, especially the ending, but damn it if I'm not proud of this one.**

 **The world needs more Ulrich and Aelita interactions, and if no one else will do it, I will.**

 **If you're curious, the hc is that Ulrich teaches Aelita how to play piano after learning that Hopper knew how because he thinks it'd make Aelita happy, and Aelita sees it as a way to keep her father's memory alive.**

 **I have gotta stop staying up till 12:30 to finish these things.**

 **Oh well. Time for sleep.**


End file.
